Thursday, May 31, 2007

state religions and Christian heritage

While having a parliamentary prayer and state religion don't have much appeal for me, denying that we have a Christian heritage is a bit like denying Maori are indigenous people of this country and therefore the Treaty of Waitangi should be removed from our constitution.

We may not want an official state religion and we may want to deny our Christian heritage. Yet we recogise Maori as the indigenous people of New Zealand. Similarly, recognising our Christian heritage acknowledges where we have come from. Helen Clark wants to deny our nation's Christian heritage and undermine the influence of Christianity - but she won't get rid of the Treaty or deny our historical links with Britain even if we do end up being a republic.

Nor should she.New Zealand has more of a Christian heritage than any other belief system - examples of that are of course our public holidays at Christmas and Easter, the flag, the national anthem and the parliamentary prayer. Some would also include the Treaty of Waitangi, and it is pertinent to point out that without missionaries like Henry Williams, the Treaty may not have been signed by the tribes. We have a public holiday for that as well - Waitangi Day.

Once we have declared that Christianity is irrelevant to our heritage, of course the next step is to get rid of the Parliamentary Prayer.. then the National Anthem, then the flag ( with the star-shaped crosses), then Karakia... oh no, cant have that, can we, Maori spirituality will become the new state religion - and we dont want a state religion, even if we do want to recognise the Treaty as part of our constitution. So if we keep the Treaty, its good enough to recognise that we have a Christian heritage as well.It doesn't mean we have to subscribe to a Christian belief system any more than we have to speak Maori.

Do you know we have two official languages in New Zealand? And guess what - English is not one of them. And there is more people in this country who subscribe to Christianity than can speak either of the two official languages.

Surely we have better things to occupy our time than to decide whether to alter the prayer in Parliament as a consequence of denying our Christian heritage.

3 comments:

But that's not how Helen and her mates see it.Christianity has hurt and burned sensitive souls for centuries.

Especially the intolerant fundie Christians, well those who actually believe the Bible or at elast say they do.

All the tosh they've heeped on the homosexuals,lesbians fornicators and adulterers and now the poor transgendered too.

Forcing people to listen to "hateful intolerant speech" and even discriminting against peoples lifestyle choices whether it involves money or not.

No She must be seen to be the leader in the world setting the example for her other socialist (read communist/stalinist) friends around the world.

Also she gets to stick it to the Bushes of this world by giving his supreme courts another overseas law to quote and justify their social engineering.

Hey it's al mates stratch my back stuff.So the prayer and anything Christian is in the sights , all in the name of fairness, equality and tolerence in a multicultural country.Labour and their Green and union pals.Yeah right.

This diatribe indicates someone someone feels a bit let down by the governments’ position.

The writer confuses “secular democracy” with communism. "Her other socialist friends" are the bulk of Western Europe, and Anglo commonwealth countries. The “religious democracies” include Indonesia, Iran, Israel, and Egypt. The USA where the Religious right has allot of political influence is somewhat in-between the two.

I'd say in terms of tolerance, human rights, and freedom we would bee better to be in the former group.

And the last irrelevant statement sarcastically advocating the right to beat our children....throw in "ban the hero parade" and it smells like the complete C.Heritage campaign platform. Mr Caphill will tell you that their family values policy is a bit of a moot point.

80% said do not remove physical correction so yeah I am a bit pissed.and I did feel better after writing it.better than taking it out on soemone else or doing something anti social.harrah fopr blogs where you can rant your head off as long as you don't impinge the owner.

secular democracy?western europe?get real!What planet are you on?

they will be engulfed by Islam in 100yrs, as they have nothing to offer but yuck.there'll be no cartoons then nor socialist sops in parliament.MikeNZ